Media Conversion from Webtoon to Television
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Media Conversion From Webtoon To Television A Case Study Of: I Sneak A Look At His Room Everyday And Flower Boy Next Door. Therese Angenberg Norin Department of Asian, Middle Eastern and Turkish Studies MA Thesis 60 HE credits Korean Studies MA Asian Studies (120 credits) Spring term 2018 Supervisor: Sonja Häussler ABSTRACT Although webtoons have become one of the largest consumed media in South Korea, and many webtoons have been adapted to both film and television, there has been a lack of research on webtoon to television adaptations. This thesis will investigate the specific characteristics of the webtoon that make it suitable for television adaptation using the webtoon I Sneak A Look At His Room Everyday by Yu Hyŏn Suk and the television series Flower Boy Next Door directed by Chŏng Chŏng Hwa. By using narrative structure and character analysis the two works will be compared and contrasted to discover the similarities and differences that enable a smooth media conversion. The second part of the thesis looks into what a webtoon is and how it has evolved during the years. To explore the characteristics for media conversion the webtoon and the television series were analysed both separately and compared to find the commonalities and the differences. The results indicate that using similar storytelling methods such as story-arcs play a large role in the success of webtoon to television adaptation. Both media needs to keep their viewers on their toes to make them want to read/watch further. Keywords: South Korea, Webtoons, Televison, Adaptation, Media Conversion, Flower Boy Next Door, I Sneak A Look At His Room Everyday (story-arcs) Contents 1. Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 1 1.1 Purpose Of Study ........................................................................................................ 1 1.2 Sources And Previous Research .................................................................................. 3 1.3 Methodology ............................................................................................................... 4 1.4 Transcription And Korean Names............................................................................... 6 2. What Is A Webtoon? .......................................................................................................... 7 2.1 Manhwa ....................................................................................................................... 7 2.2 Definition And History Of The Webtoon ................................................................... 7 2.3 The Webtoons’ Storytelling Method And Vertical Scroll Format ............................ 10 3. I Sneak A Look At His Room Everyday ............................................................................ 12 3.1 Introduction Of The Webtoon Artist ......................................................................... 12 3.2 Main Characters In The Webtoon ............................................................................. 12 3.3 Synopsis .................................................................................................................... 13 3.4 Character Analysis .................................................................................................... 15 4. Flower Boy Next Door ..................................................................................................... 16 4.1 Introduction Of The Director .................................................................................... 16 4.2 Characters .................................................................................................................. 17 4.3 Synopsis .................................................................................................................... 18 4.4 Character Analysis .................................................................................................... 19 5. Comparative Analysis Of I Sneak A Look At His Room Everyday And Flower Boy Next Door ......................................................................................................................................... 22 5.1 Major Differences Between The Webtoon And The Television Series .................... 22 5.2 Differences And Similarities Between The Characters ............................................. 23 5.3 Comparison Between The Webtoon And The Television Series .............................. 23 5.3.1 Webtoon Chapters 1-5, Television Series Episodes 1-2. ........................................ 23 5.3.2 Webtoon Chapters 10 -15, Television Series Episodes 3-5 .................................... 25 5.3.3 Webtoon chapter 49, Television Series Episodes 6-14 ........................................... 27 5.3.4 Webtoon Chapters 52-END, Television Series Episodes 15-16 ............................. 30 5.4 Flashbacks ...................................................................................................................... 34 6. Conclusion ....................................................................................................................... 35 7. Limitations and Further Study ......................................................................................... 36 8. References ........................................................................................................................ 38 Internet Sources ....................................................................................................................... 39 1. Introduction 1.1 Purpose Of Study In this thesis I will analyse the webtoon I Sneak A Look At His Room Everyday (Nanŭn maeil kŭrŭl humch’yŏ ponda, 나는 매일 그를 훔쳐본다) by Yu Hyŏn Suk and the television series Flower Boy Next Door (Iutchip kkonminam,이웃집 꽃미남) directed by Chŏng Chŏng Hwa. Flower Boy Next Door was broadcasted in 2013 and was one of the first television series to be based on a webtoon. Another television series based on webtoons at the time was Mary Stayed Out All Night (2011)1 which was based on a webtoon with the same name published by Wŏn Su Yŏn on Kakao Webtoons.2 Both of the webtoons had a fairly big group of followers but the television series failed to reach the same success. Mary Stayed Out All Night had an average rating of 6.3%,3 and Flower Boy Next Door had an average rating of 1.3%.4 These ratings would seem to indicate that Mary Stayed Out All Night was much more popular than Flower Boy Next Door. But actually Mary Stayed Out All Night was broadcasted on KBS5 which is a public TV channel, whilst Flower Boy Next Door was broadcasted on TvN, a cable network. If we consider that in 2013 it was rare for cable network programming to reach over 1% in ratings, it can be concluded that in fact Flower Boy Next Door was the more popular television series of the two. Although the success of the television series Flower Boy Next Door could be measured using the official TV-network ratings, it is much harder to say how successful the webtoon was in terms of statistics. I was unable to recover any data regarding the number of hits or visits for I Sneak A Look At His Room Every Day. The initial intention of this research paper was to analyse not only the characteristics that make the webtoon suitable for television series adaptation, but also to look into the ways in 1 Sŏk Ku Hong and Yŏng Kyun Kim, “Mary Stayed out All Night (Maerinŭn Oebakchung, 매리는 외박중)” (KBS, 2011), http://www.kbs.co.kr/drama/mary. 2Su Yŏn Wŏn, Mary Stayed Out All Night (Kakao Webtoons,). https://page.kakao.com/home/46413888 ACCESSED: 2018-04-24 3 Wikipedia contributors, “Mary Me, Mary!,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, accessed March 28, 2018, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Marry_Me,_Mary!&oldid=839413161. 4 It is important to note however that the ratings found were for broadcasts both on TvN and its sister channel Onstyle. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flower_Boys_Next_Door#cite_note-15 5 Korean Broadcasting System. South Koreas leading public service broadcaster. “KBS,” n.d., http://english.kbs.co.kr/about/faq.html. 1 which writers of South Korean webtoons as well as television series’ listen to and follow the advice and opinion of their viewers and readers. As both webtoons and television series are being produced as they are running,6 it is interesting to investigate how much the writers (of both media) pay attention and listen to the reactions and opinions of the viewers and readers. For example, usually a forum or a message board is set up on the official webpage of a television series for the viewers to comment and discuss the television series.7 And there is also a comment section/box at the bottom of each chapter of a webtoon, making it easy for fans of the webtoon to communicate with each other, and to show their appreciation to the artist. During the research for this thesis, however, I realised that it would have been too much for a project of a Master thesis (based on the criteria for writing a Master Thesis at the Department of Asian, Middle Eastern and Turkish Studies at Stockholm University as of 2018). However, this angle would be interesting to investigate in another research project in the future. Therefore this thesis will focus on using the above mentioned webtoon and television series to analyse the characteristics which make webtoons suitable for television series adaptation. From October 2017 to January 2018 the Korean Manhwa Contents Agency (Komacon for short)8 and the Korean